Russia on Sunday said it has captured another east Ukrainian village as it closes on the important city of Pokrovsk, where its forces have been advancing for weeks.聽
Russian troops have moved westwards in the Donetsk region for months, with Kyiv saying this weekend that the situation was 鈥榲ery difficult.鈥�
Moscow鈥檚 defence ministry said its forces have now taken Mykhailivka, at the gates of the town of Selydove, and south of Pokrovsk.
Selydove has been badly damaged by months of shelling and seen most of its population flee.聽
Russia has been trying to capture Pokrovsk鈥攁 mining town that was home to some 60,000 people before Moscow launched its offensive. It has been claiming east Ukrainian villages for months.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that Moscow had attempted to push back Ukrainian positions in the Russian Kursk region but that Kyiv was 鈥榟olding the line.鈥�
Ukraine has held on to swathes of Russia鈥檚 Kursk region since early August.
鈥楻egarding the Kursk operation, there were attempts by Russia to push back our positions, but we are holding the lines,鈥� Zelensky said.
Russia earlier this week said it had recaptured two villages in the Kursk region, and vowed to continue to push Ukrainian forces out of its territory.
Ukraine has said its offensive is intended to create a buffer zone in the region to stop shelling of its border areas.
Zelensky also acknowledged that the situation for Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donetsk region and southern Zaporizhzhia region was 鈥榲ery difficult鈥�.
Kyiv said earlier that Russian attacks Saturday had killed two people in the eastern Donetsk region: a 19-year-old travelling in a civilian car and an 84-year-old pensioner.